Southern California -- this just in

Request for Station fire choppers not heeded, Times investigation shows

December 21, 2009 | 7:57
am

Newly released records contradict a finding by the U.S. Forest Service
that steep terrain prevented the agency from using aircraft to attack
-- and potentially contain -- the Station fire just before it began
raging out of control.

Experts on Forest Service tactics also
dispute the agency's conclusion that helicopters and tanker planes
would have been ineffective because the canyon in the Angeles National
Forest was too treacherous for ground crews to take advantage of aerial
water dumps.

Two officers who helped direct the fight on the
ground and from the sky made separate requests for choppers and tankers
during a critical period on the deadly fire's second day, according to
records and interviews.

At 12:49 a.m. on Aug. 27, Forest Service dispatch logs show, a division chief made this call for aircraft:

"Fire
has spotted below the road, about five acres. Order one helitanker,
three airtankers, any type. . . . Have them over the fire by 0700
hours."

But the airtankers were canceled and the helitanker was
significantly delayed, according to dispatch logs, deployment reports
and interviews. The Times obtained the logs, reports and volumes of
other documents through the federal Freedom of Information Act.